Wired rating

Wired

Tired

Price

£1,299

Travel a lot? Work a lot? Earn a lot? Likelihood is the first
two are more common than the last, but if you are lucky enough to
achieve the third then Samsung has a laptop
for you.

The "900X3A" is an ultra light 13.3-inch laptop the company
hopes will steer potential Apple converts away
from the MacBook Air. It is part of the "9 Series", Samsung's flagship
brand for its leading products and will soon be joined by an
11-inch model that threatens to be even more lust worthy.

So what does the 900X3A bring to the table? The first thing you
will notice is its size, or rather the lack of it. At 16.3mm,
tapering to 15.9in, the 900X3A is arguably thinner than the
equivalent size Air which measures 17mm at its thickest point,
though it does then taper to a cake-cuttingly sharp 3mm. Likewise
the 900X3A has the slightest of advantages when it comes to weight,
tipping the scales at 1.31Kg verses the Air's 1.32Kg.

Such slender advantages may be the basis for evangelical
marketing campaigns (World's Lightest/Thinnest, etc), but in
reality both it and the Air are equally portable which has us
looking for other differences. Besides looks closer and you'll
discover size is their only similarity.

Deviating from the Air's machined silver aluminium
finish, Samsung has opted for black "Duralumin" -- a super tough
aluminium alloy. Samsung claims this lightweight material is twice
as strong as regular aluminium and while we aren't tempted to put
this to the test with a sledgehammer there is no doubt it gives the
900X3A a highly practical outer shell. Less practical is the
finish. Duralumin may be strong, but it can't resist fingerprints.
Both the lid and area around the trackpad are fingerprint magnets
and if you're design conscious (and let's face it, if you're
looking at this type of machine, you are) then you'll spend a lot
of time removing them with a cloth or sleeve.

The screen lid is brushed Duralumin, as is the aforementioned
area around the touchpad, but between these two is a glossy black
plastic bezel, the same material of which is used around the
keyboard. The keyboard keys are matt black and the bottom of the
laptop is matt black plastic. Similarly the Samsung logo is
embossed on the lid and smooth under the screen. This is not to say
the 900X3A doesn't look good, it does and it certainly garners its
fair share of glances when used in public places, but it could have
looked better -- especially when targeting such a stylish
rival.

That said from this point onwards Samsung is in the driving
seat. In short the 900X3A is a technological tour de force. What is
remarkable is not that Samsung has managed to match the thickness
and weight of the MacBook Air, but that it has done so while
packing in cutting edge components and lots of connectivity.

The beating heart of the 900X3A is an Intel Core i5-2537M dual core processor. This is part of Intel's highly anticipated
Sandy Bridge platform and is two generations newer than what you'll
find inside an Air. Consequently while it runs at 1.4GHz it has the
ability to "turbo clock" itself to 2.3GHz when needed. It can also
utilise Hyper-threading
to create four virtual CPU cores meaning it makes mince meat out of
a) multi-tasking, and b) the 1.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo inside the
MacBook Air. Combined with this blockbuster CPU is Intel's latest
graphics chip, the "HD-3000". This isn't designed for gaming, though it
will happily run less demanding 3D games at lower
resolutions. Where it comes into its own is in desktop. It runs
Full HD (1080p) video without breaking sweat and video editing and
ripping can be done as quickly as a top of the range desktop
graphics card.

Impressed? We're only just getting started. Samsung equips the
900X3A with 4GB of RAM as standard (compared to the Air's 2GB) and
an Air-matching 128GB solid state drive. SSDs are famously
expensive, but they offer blistering performance. Windows 7 boots
in under 20 seconds and the likes of Microsoft Office load almost
instantaneously. You may be using the most ultraportable of
laptops, but you will feel like you're on a fully fledged
desktop.

This laptop will also likely be kinder on your eyes than your
desktop monitor. The 900X3A screen has a brightness of 400nits, the
highest ever fitted to laptop, and it auto adjusts to provide
optimum visibility in any lighting condition. If you're in an area
where light is constantly changing, this can be annoying and is
easily disabled. As for viewing angles they are exceptional with
colours vivid from virtually 180 degrees and black levels are
exceptional, particularly when watching high definition video where
you'll see a lot of detail in the shadows. One gripe is the native
screen resolution. At 1366 x 768 it offers less screen real estate
than the Air's 1400 x 900 (noticeably less vertically), but for
many it is a comfortable trade-off for a more readable resolution
on the move.

Just as useful is the backlit keyboard. It was a shock when
Apple left keyboard backlighting out of the Airs (even as an
option) and it is extremely welcome in the 900X3A. Just like the
screen detects light levels, so the keyboard lighting can come on
automatically in dark/dim conditions or be switched off and on
manually from no less than seven brightness settings. Clever stuff
and thankfully the keyboard itself is excellent to go with it.
Samsung has opted for the isolation key design first implemented by
Sony (but most
widely associated with Apple) and the tactility and feedback from
the keys is excellent. Arrow keys are slightly shrunken and a lot
of keys double up with additional functions, but you'll be typing
at full speed with little practice.

Good as the screen and keyboard are, the crowd stealer is the
touchpad. In fairness Samsung has unashamedly ripped off the
touchpad from Apple's MacBooks, but that is no bad thing. As a
result the touchpad does away with buttons in favour of turning
itself into one giant clickable button. The left side corresponds
to the left mouse button and the right...you guessed it.
Multi-touch and multi-press recognition is also available and all
gesture commands are customisable. It can be easy to stray and mix
up left and right buttons at first, but the fact Samsung has
managed to equal the quality of Apple's implementation is high
praise indeed. It is easily the best touchpad we have used on a Windows
laptop.

Comments

Saw one in NYC and it is pretty cutting edge - even sharp to the touch!Shame they haven't been able to deliver any to the shops, even phoned Samsung to ask when but they were completely clueless

Nick

Apr 28th 2011

In reply to Nick

It is available at costco,PC richards, some best buy store.

samguy

Apr 28th 2011

In reply to Nick

I'm reading this review on a 900X bought in London, Tottenham Court Road. Guys, I can tell you it's well worth the cost, the only thing that beats it as a conversation piece is an iPad2 (from Jobs cult members). The in-box documentation states a VGA adapter is available as an option but I'm yet to find out where, when I do get one of these, it will simply be perfect.

AndyCD

May 8th 2011

In reply to AndyCD

I got one yesterday. It comes actually with micro-hdmi interface and not mini or hdmi (as stated in Samsung website). I got optional LAN Cable adapter which was listed as optional and surprisingly HDMI-DMI cable. This cannot be used with the device without additional adapter. micro-hdmi and monitor is not a problem nowadays, BUT what can I do for data projector VGA connectivity? There is even image of optional VGA Adapter, but where I can buy one?

SI

May 14th 2011

I've been hunting for ages. I think the official Samsung part no. is AA-AH0NAMB but only available in the US. I'm going to try this www.cables-leads.co.uk/micro-hdmi-type-d-to-dvi-d-cable-solution-1-5m.

Crusty

Jun 29th 2011

Just bought one £1200 will to sell if interested mak an offer over £800

Jeff

Oct 10th 2011

i have one, he is great, the only problem is with his wifi range...poor